Caleb Robinson: ‘He Was Missed Last Year, For Sure’

LARAMIE -- He figured it was just a hyperextension.

After all, he could still put weight on his right leg more than 30 minutes after that spring scrimmage concluded. Admittedly, the senior has a high-pain tolerance. Denial, though, might have played an even bigger role than even he imagined that April afternoon.

Caleb Robinson tore his ACL. In fact, his MCL was severed, too. His knee, officially blown out.

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The senior defensive tackle would miss the entire 2024 campaign.

"It's heartbreaking, of course," the senior said. "It's unfortunate. But, you know, one of the things that really helped me was just my faith in God and everything like that. I just leaned on that and, you know, just understanding that there are things to come.

"This is just a part of my story."

How did it happen?

Well, like any interior lineman would, he was simply trying to shed a block and bring down the ball carrier. It was a goal-line situation. Robinson said he got too vertical. He planted his leg and even forced the running back to cut early.

The opposing lineman had other ideas -- and all the leverage.

"Oh, yeah, immediately," Robinson said, referring to the sharp agony he instantly felt. "It just felt like two bones shifted on each other ... It was like five seconds of excruciating pain."

His worst fear was soon realized.

It wasn't the first time his plans had been altered, either.

A car accident in the summer of 2023 rattled the 6-foot-2, 295-pound Omaha native, both mentally and physically. His left thumb and right big toe bore the brunt. So did his 2014 Grand Cherokee, which still features a bent frame thanks to a 40-mile-per-hour head-on collision that was sparked when a city bus came to an abrupt stop on a major roadway in his hometown.

A small black car swerved into Robinson's lane.

Everyone survived.

"It just all happened so fast, the way he liked jumped over the median," Robinson recalled, adding that he fared much better than his front bumper and headlights, which were totaled.

Robinson tallied just nine tackles in 11 outings. He never sacked a quarterback. He never forced a fumble. He finished with just one stop behind the line of scrimmage.

"I wouldn't necessarily say that it ruined my season or anything like that, but, yeah, it set me back," he said of that accident. "I was supposed to be back for workouts, like, I want to say, three or four days after that, but I had to stay there for actually two or three weeks. So the whole thing was just -- did it go as planned."

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Sometimes you don't know what you have until it's gone.

That was certainly the case last fall without the services of Robinson.

Wyoming was a shell of its former self in the trenches, allowing nearly 200 rushing yards per game and almost six yards per attempt. That landed the Cowboys eighth overall in the 11-team Mountain West. That ranked 111th overall out of 133 FBS programs.

New Mexico, thanks to a dynamic duo of quarterback Devon Dampier and running back Eli Sanders, exploited the visiting defense on a sunny day in Albuquerque to the tune of 412 yards on the ground. The pair above crossed the white stripe five times.

"He was missed last year, for sure," head coach Jay Sawvel said. "When Caleb went down, then you were relying full time on inexperienced players all the way through.

"... Caleb would have been a big help last year."

Jaden Williams, who is now at Kentucky, led the way for that unit with just 28 tackles. Upperclassmen Ben Florentine and Jordan Bertagnole added just 25 each. Jayden Williams capped his redshirt freshman campaign with 20.

That group managed just two sacks, Florentine leading the way with one.

Position coach Jeff Phelps was fired this offseason after just one year in Laramie.

"He was a huge piece missing last year because he was playing the best he had played," then first-year defensive coordinator Aaron Bohl said, referring to Robinson. "That's one of your seniors. Like, your best teams are when the seniors play the best and really answer the bell and rise to the occasion. It looked like he was on that track, and now he's got to get back there."

Robinson spent that Tuesday practice whipping around tackling dummies and fighting off real-life double teams.

Yes, he has the bulky-black brace on his right knee, but his explosion was apparent early on. New defensive tackles coach Deonte Gibson spent plenty of one-on-one time with Robinson, showing him different hand techniques and monitoring his every move.

So far, so good.

Did Robinson ever consider throwing in the towel after earning that three-inch scar on his right knee?

No chance.

"It's as much part of me as breathing," he added. "I can't see myself not playing football."

He rehabbed up to six hours a day for nearly a year. That included running, lifting and squatting. That, he said, was the true test. Sure, a slip here or there causes some breath-holding, but Robinson said he refuses to play scared.

This injury is in the rear-view mirror.

"What happens is just meant to happen," he said. "Me being worried about it won't so me any good, right? So, I might as well go 100 miles per hour."